Post-COVID syndrome: Feeling effects over the long haul

By Mayo Clinic staff

Most people who have COVID-19 recover completely within a few weeks. But some people — even those who had mild versions of the disease — continue to experience symptoms after their initial recovery.

These people sometimes describe themselves as "long-haulers," and the conditions have been called "post-COVID-19 syndrome" or "long COVID-19." These health issues also are sometimes called "post-COVID-19 conditions." These health issues are generally considered to be effects of COVID-19 that persist for more than four weeks after people have been diagnosed with COVID-19.

Older people and people with many serious medical conditions are the most likely to experience lingering COVID-19 symptoms, but even young, otherwise healthy people can feel unwell for weeks to months after infection.

Common signs and symptoms that linger over time include:

• Fatigue
• Shortness of breath or difficulty breathing
• Cough
• Joint pain
• Chest pain
• Memory, concentration or sleep problems
• Muscle pain or headache
• Fast or pounding heartbeat
• Loss of smell or taste
• Depression or anxiety
• Fever
• Dizziness when standing
• Worsened symptoms after physical or mental activities

Organ damage caused by COVID-19

Although COVID-19 is seen as a disease that primarily affects the lungs, it can damage many other organs, as well. This organ damage may increase the risk of long-term health problems.

Organs that may be affected by COVID-19 include:

• Heart
  Imaging tests taken months after recovery from COVID-19 have shown lasting damage to the heart, even in people who experienced only mild COVID-19 symptoms. This may increase the risk of heart failure or other heart complications in the future.
• Lungs
  The type of pneumonia often associated with COVID-19 can cause long-standing damage to the tiny air sacs, or alveoli, in the lungs. The resulting scar tissue can lead to long-term breathing problems.
• Brain
  Even in young people, COVID-19 can cause strokes, seizures and Guillain-Barre syndrome — a condition that causes temporary paralysis. COVID-19 also can increase the risk of developing Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease.

Some adults and children experience multisystem inflammatory syndrome after they have been infected with COVID-19. In this condition, some organs and tissues become severely inflamed.

Blood clots, blood vessel problems

COVID-19 can make blood cells more likely to clump and form clots. While large clots can cause heart attacks and strokes, much of the heart damage caused by COVID-19 is believed to stem from small clots that block tiny blood vessels, or capillaries, in the heart.

Other parts of the body affected by blood clots include the lungs, legs, liver and kidneys. COVID-19 also can weaken blood vessels and cause them to leak, which contributes to potentially long-lasting problems with the liver and kidneys.

Issues with mood, fatigue

People who have severe symptoms of COVID-19 often must be treated in a hospital's ICU with mechanical assistance, such as ventilators to breathe. Simply surviving this experience can make a person more likely to later develop post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and anxiety.

Because it's difficult to predict long-term outcomes from COVID-19, scientists are looking at the long-term effects seen in related viruses, such as the coronavirus that causes severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS.

Many people who have recovered from SARS have gone on to develop chronic fatigue syndrome, a complex disorder characterized by extreme fatigue that worsens with physical or mental activity but doesn't improve with rest. The same may be true for people who have been infected with COVID-19.

COVID-19 effects still unknown

Much is still unknown about how COVID-19 will affect people over time, but research is ongoing. Researchers recommend that health care providers closely monitor people who have been infected with COVID-19 to see how their organs function after recovery.

Many large medical centers are opening specialized clinics to care for people who have persistent symptoms or related illnesses after they recover from COVID-19. Support groups are available, as well.

It's important to remember that most people who are infected with COVID-19 recover quickly. But the potentially long-lasting problems from COVID-19 make it even more important to reduce the spread of COVID-19 by following precautions. This includes wearing masks, social distancing, avoiding crowds, getting a vaccine when available and keeping hands clean.

Watch this video to learn more about long-term symptoms or complications of COVID-19:

Learn more:

• Mayo Clinic Connect post-COVID recovery
• Mayo Clinic Post-COVID program

Information in this post was accurate at the time of its posting. Due to the fluid nature of the COVID-19 pandemic, scientific understanding, along with guidelines and recommendations, may have changed since the original publication date.